This spring a friend colleague of mine send me an email that he found me on a tour at Nuremberg two years ago. The video includes some nice scenes from the Main Danube Canal and the MS Serenade 1. How can I prove the ships identity? You can see the wheelhouse and identify the ships ENI.

During the first week of May, Ernst Bromeis started his mission, to cruise swim down the Rhine from its source at the Toma Lake down to the mouth. He prefered this arduous way of traveling (with an est. 40km / day) from the Alps, via Basel to Rotterdam as he sees himself as an ambassador for nature. His message is to use water reasonable, spare it. Therefore he started the project 'The Blue Wonder - Rhine 2012'.

Yesterday (May 16th 2012) the Avalon Panorama hit a road bridge while it was on its way from Bamberg to Nuremberg. According to sources, the captain did not lower the wheelhouse, while passing a bridge. The damage of wheelhouse and the ships superstructure is est. € 20.000 / $ 25.000, the bridges substructure repair costs are not estimated yet. German authorities ordered the ship to halt at the lock until the wheelhouse has been repaired. You can see how the remove the damaged wheelhouse with a crane on some of the picture sets.

Today on May 14th 1948 the state of Israel declared its independence after the civil war in the British Mandatory Palestine. Just one day later, the arab nations and palestinian forces declared war on the jewish state. But this is not a story for this blog. Well, how do I get from this story line back to river cruising? First of all happy birthday Israel and enjoy the music!